What I Learnt From Quitting Medium

I quit Medium in 2018 after I decided the platform was no longer suited for me. Initially, I had been having two major concerns. First, that it was a warped opinion tabloid for a growing number of average level writers and second, the platform wouldn’t pay great writers from developing countries that didn’t yet have Stripe — Medium’s payment partners — active in their home country.

I made my final decision when I saw yet another popularised but offensive homosexuality post. When I got to the account deleting section I got a pop up message that read,

“We’re sorry to see you go. Once your account is deleted, all of your content will be permanently gone, including your profile, stories, publications, notes, and responses. If you’re not sure about that, we suggest you deactivate… instead.”

The cautionary message wasn’t enough to change my resolve and after filling in my username I was off medium with the click of a button. My entire medium writing history now gone, the weight of my actions dawned on me when I started applying for freelance jobs and I needed a portfolio to show potential employers.

Then I remembered why I opened my account initially,

“To have a personal blog type where I could create relatable and high-quality content which could be ultimately used as a portfolio.”

Yet I had deleted the account impulsively as though it never had a purpose. The lessons I learnt from deleting my medium account are shared in this article:

Stick To Your Mission Statement

I am enthralled by the digital business space and much of my work in the past year has been centered around it. In my time working in this space, I have found that many businessowners tend to drift off their initial mission or purpose much like I did relating to whether to keep my medium account or not.

Remembering my initial purpose for creating my account I would have been restrained from deleting my account. Drifting off that purpose had me struggling to rebuild what I had spent years building on a personal account years after — bearing in mind this is my first post on my new account.

A forfeiture of initial business growth eventually occurs in startups that don’t stay consistent with their predetermined purposes and missions. This is the reason why some companies make it their duty to place their mission statements in conspicuous areas of their offices. It is not so much for the clients as it is for the employees of the organization.

Always Have A Back Up

No one plans to fail but inadvertently people do. Therefore, you need to admit changes happen and you must be simply prepared for them. You can be better prepared when you ensure to put a backup plan in place which creates a cushioning effect in the event of unexpected negative changes.

In my case, I had a LinkedIn account and a now defunct kikiers.com account on which I published a fewer number of articles. Both accounts served as a safety net whenever I needed to showcase my published articles to prospective clients. While they never held the robustness of my deleted medium account they still served as viable options to the deleted account. In addition, I now own a Substack newsletter which is a great addition to my list of publishing options.

Beyond writing, I apply this option-creating approach to my work life including permanent and temporary job positions to avoid being left out cold. I had held two jobs, namely, an engineering position and a freelance writing job before the pandemic. As work activities relating to my site engineering role slowed through the course of the pandemic, I focused mainly on freelancing through the pandemic. Now as the pandemic eases, my site job responsibilities are mounting again, and I have apparently lost the freelance job now but the good thing is, I’m not left without a job at any point.

It’s Not All About The Money

I don’t believe it was a right decision to have deleted my medium account even as more Medium creators from developing countries continue to press for payments on Medium. Money is a good motivation but you must be able to keep working without any remuneration in sight. This is particularly important for creatives and self-employed individuals who require portfolios to get projects.

A lack of remuneration often means working without supervision and is typically spotted with lower levels of motivations compared to when money is involved but you can’t afford to stop working. One thing I do is to create a work-inducing environment to enable me work seamlessly on my personal projects. Creating a suitable work environment prevents me from unconsciously drifting off work.

My most frequent experience with drifting off work happens while I was working from home, an unfamiliar drowsy feeling typically weighed on me immediately after eating. To deal with this, I rented a workspace immediately the lockdown was over to enable me work away from home as I am used to. This made more active and focused on the job at hand. On weekends when I need to work from home I ensure to control my feeding and eliminate phone distractions.

Don’t Make Impulsive Decisions

Impulsive decisions are harmful to building sustainable business and work processes. The day I eventually deleted my account I was triggered by a single offensive post out of a million others on the platform.

Looking back, I believe I wouldn’t have gone through with the decision if I had taken time to weigh the pros and cons of the action. It negatively impacted my portfolio and the Hoblife publication I created in conjunction with a few other writers. I know now that the best way to keep impulsive decisions in check is to think deep before making final decisions, and whenever you are unsure, simply take a break and revisit the topic later.

Takeaway

Deleting my medium account was never a mistake, it was a conscious decision but not well thought through. It did had a negative effect on my writing portfolio and my company’s publication in the long term.

To avoid any regrets from your personal decisions, ensure to stay true to your mission on any endeavour while constantly creating viable options alongside. Money is a great motivation but never make it your primary source of motivation it could be unavailable and that’s never an excuse to stop doing what you love.

Avoid taking impulsive decisions which were randomly triggered without a proper thought process. The lessons I learnt from this shoddy action can be very useful in your personal, work and business endeavours. Indeed I am glad to be back to medium.